Darn. I now feel personally responsible for the Demise of Talbot's.
2010 was just not the time for a switch into a trendiness strategy; the economy was in the tank, barely recovering, still anemic from 2008. HAD they held on, maybe it would work. But dump a bunch of money into it? When customers didn't have any? Bad strategy.
I feel personally responsible because I *am* a classic Talbot's customer. It was one of the first places I'd shop at, back in my early career/20-something days, because they offered petites when few other places did. I was quite loyal to Talbot's for years and years... until other brands caught on and I had more to choose from. Then when I returned to Talbot's.. it looked all frumpy to me.
I was really thrilled by the 2010 catalog, but was not in a financial place to buy much. Worried about the economy, layoffs, etc, with daughters soon going to college, we reduced clothing budgets. I am sure I am not the only one!
Post-2008, all the other retailers shifted strategies and I noticed it BIG time. They cut their petite offerings by... I'll say 70%. That's what it seemed like. It was slim pickings. It still is, but is recovering. And the pickings that were there, were highly conservative. NOT trendy.
The way to survive an economic downturn is not to go all trendy and spend oodles of $ on marketing to attract a different customer. No.
I do hope they survive.